From Margaret Atwood to Edwige Danticat, Assia Djebar to Luisa Valenzuela, some of the world's most famous literary voices mediate on what it means to be a woman writer. Despite their increased visibility, women who write are still thought to be different-sometimes celebrated, sometimes viewed with suspicion and condescension. This fresh collection brings together an international host of women who explore, defy, and embrace "the woman writer": an indispensable muse to some, a troublesome burden to others, a defiant, even life-threatening identity to others still. Taking nothing-certainly not the meanings of "woman" or "writer"-as given, these writers explore the varied pleasures and dangers of writing as women in the contemporary world.